First signaling system

Note 1

For the first time, the concept of signaling systems was introduced by I.P. Pavlov to distinguish between the GNI of humans and animals.

The first signaling system is inherent in humans and animals. The first signaling system is characterized by its manifestation in reflexes that are formed on stimulation of the external and internal environment, in addition to the semantic word.

Signals of the first signaling system:

• Smell;
• Form;
• Taste;
• Color;
• Temperature, etc.

The receipt of such signals, from the receptors, nerve impulses of animals and humans enter the brain and can be analyzed and synthesized

Characteristic features of the first signaling system:

1. Signal certainty (any phenomena of the surrounding reality of a person or animal);
2. Reinforcement with an unconditioned stimulus (for example, defensive, food or sexual stimuli);
3. The biological nature of the target adaptation (a person or animal constantly strives for the best: food, housing, reproduction, defense).

Second signaling system

In the process of social development, the human body acquired a second signaling system, which began to ensure the formation of a general idea of ​​the surrounding reality with the help of words and speech. The second signaling system is interconnected with human consciousness and abstract thinking.

Signals of the second signaling system:

• Words of oral speech;
• Written words;
• Signs;
• Drawings;
• Formulas;
• Facial expressions;
• Gestures;
• Symbols.

The signal meaning of a word for a person lies in its semantic content.

The second signaling system is capable of replacing the stimuli of the first signaling system. Because the signals of the 1st system constantly and continuously interact with the signals of the 2nd system. Thus, a conditioned reflex of the second and subsequent higher orders arises.

Thanks to the second signaling system, a person is capable of abstract verbal thinking.

For the functioning of the second signaling system, both hemispheres of the brain are involved.

Note 2

With the 2nd signaling system, in nervous activity, the distraction and generalization of signals that directly enter the brain arose. As a result, the adaptive function of a person to the external environment is determined. Thus, the second signaling system regulates various forms of human behavior.

Characteristic features of the second signaling system:

1. Generalization of concepts and abstraction from general properties;
2. Simultaneity in the restructuring and formation of temporary nerve connections;
3. Display of temporary connections;
4. Abstraction and abstraction concepts;
5. Fatigue and the influence of reflexes.

Interaction between the first and second signaling systems

The interaction between systems consists in the manifestation of selective irradiation of nervous processes between them. This interaction is characterized by the presence of connections between the sensory zones of the cerebral cortex, which perceive stimuli and neural structures. There is also, between signal systems, braking irradiation.

Stages of interaction of signaling systems in the process of ontogenesis:

1. Implementation of conditioned reflexes at the level of the first signal system;
2. Reaction to verbal stimuli with vegetative and somatic reactions;
3. Verbal reaction, the implementation of the second signaling system (begins with the pronunciation of individual words associated with a separate subject. Then the words denote actions and experiences. A little later, words are differentiated into categories. Ultimately, with each year of the child’s life, his vocabulary increases);
4. The appearance of conditioned reflexes;
5. Development of motor and speech stereotypes.

We perceive the world around us thanks to two systems: the first and second signaling systems.

To obtain information about the state of the body and the external environment, the first signaling system uses all of the human senses: touch, vision, smell, hearing and taste. The second, younger, signaling system allows us to perceive the world through speech. Its development occurs on the basis of and in interaction with the first in the process of human development and growth. In this article we will look at what the first signaling system is, how it develops and functions.

How does this happen in animals?

All animals can use only one source of information about the surrounding reality and changes in its state, which is the first signaling system. The external world, represented through various objects with various chemical and physical properties, such as color, smell, shape, etc., act as conditioned signals warning the body about changes to which it is necessary to adapt. Thus, a herd of deer dozing in the sun, sensing the scent of a creeping predator, suddenly takes off and flees. The stimulus became a signal of approaching danger.

Thus, in higher animals the first (conditioned reflex) signaling system is an accurate reflection of the external world around us, allowing us to correctly respond to changes and adapt to them. All its signals relate to a specific object and are specific. constituting the basis of the elementary object-related thinking of animals are formed through precisely this system.

The human first signaling system functions in the same way as in higher animals. Its isolated functioning is observed only in newborns, from birth to the age of six months, if the child is in a normal social environment. The formation and development of the second signaling system occurs in the process and as a consequence of education and between people.

Types of nervous activity

Man is a complex being, which in its historical development has gone through complex changes both in its anatomical and physiological, as well as in its psychological structure and functioning. The entire complex of diverse processes occurring in his body is carried out and controlled through one of the main physiological systems - the nervous one.

The activities of this system are divided into lower and higher. The so-called lower nervous activity is responsible for the control and management of all internal organs and systems of the human body. Interactions with objects and objects of the surrounding reality through such neuropsychic processes and mechanisms as intelligence, perception, thinking, speech, memory, attention are classified as higher nervous activity (HNA). Such interaction occurs through the direct impact of various objects on receptors, for example, auditory or visual, with further transmission of the received signals by the nervous system to the information-processing organ - the brain. It was this type of signaling that the Russian scientist I.P. Pavlov called the first signaling system. Thanks to it, the emergence and development of the second signaling system, characteristic only for people and associated with the audible (speech) or visible word (written sources), became possible.

What are signaling systems?

Based on the works of the famous Russian physiologist and naturalist I.M. Sechenov on the reflex activity of the higher parts of the brain, I.P. Pavlov created a theory about GNI - higher nervous activity of man. Within the framework of this doctrine, the concept of what signaling systems are was formulated. They are understood as complexes of conditioned reflex connections formed in the cerebral cortex (isocortex) as a result of the receipt of various impulses from the outside world or from systems and organs of the body. That is, the work of the first signaling system is aimed at performing analytical and synthetic operations to recognize signals coming from the senses about objects in the external world.

As a result of social development and mastery of speech, a second signaling system arose and evolved. As the child’s psyche grows and develops, the ability to understand and then reproduce speech gradually develops as a consequence of the emergence and consolidation of associative connections, spoken sounds or words with sensory impressions about objects in the external environment.

Features of the first signaling system

In this signaling system, both the means and methods of communication and all other forms of behavior are based on the direct perception of the surrounding reality and the reaction to impulses coming from it in the process of interaction. The first human signaling system is a response concrete sensory reflection of the impact on receptors from the outside world.

First, the body experiences a sensation of any phenomena, properties or objects perceived by the receptors of one or more sense organs. Then the sensations are transformed into more complex forms - perception. And only after the second signaling system has been formed and developed, does it become possible to create abstract forms of reflection that are not tied to a specific object, such as representations and concepts.

Localization of signaling systems

Centers located in the cerebral hemispheres are responsible for the normal functioning of both signaling systems. The reception and processing of information for the first signaling system is carried out by both the perception and processing of the information flow for the second signaling system, which is responsible for the development of logical thinking. The second (more than the first) human signaling system depends on the structural integrity of the brain and its functioning.

Relationship between signaling systems

According to Pavlov, the second and first signaling systems are in constant interaction and are interconnected according to the functions they perform. This is due to the fact that on the basis of the first, a second signaling system arose and developed. The signals of the first, coming from the environment and from different parts of the body, are in continuous interaction with the signals of the second. During such interaction, conditioned reflexes of a higher order arise, which create functional connections between them. Due to developed thought processes and social lifestyle, a person has a more developed second signaling system.

Stages of development

In the process of individual mental development of a child born at term, the first signaling system begins to take shape within a few days after birth. At the age of 7-10 days, the formation of the first conditioned reflexes is possible. So, the baby makes sucking movements with his lips even before the nipple is put in his mouth. Conditioned reflexes to sound stimuli can be formed at the beginning of the second month of life.

The older the child becomes, the faster his conditioned reflexes are formed. In order for a one-month-old baby to develop a temporary connection, it will be necessary to make many repetitions of the influence of unconditioned and conditioned stimuli. In a two to three month old baby, it only takes a few repetitions to create the same temporary connection.

The second signaling system begins to take shape in children aged one and a half years, when, with repeated naming of an object, together with its demonstration, the child begins to respond to the word. In children, it comes to the fore only by the age of 6-7 years.

Role reversal

Thus, in the process of the child’s psychophysical development, throughout childhood and adolescence, there is a change in the significance and priority between these signaling systems. At school age and until the beginning of puberty, the second signaling system comes to the fore. During puberty, due to significant hormonal and physiological changes in the body of adolescents, for a short period the first signaling system again becomes the leading one. By high school, the second signaling system again becomes a leader and maintains its dominant position throughout life, constantly improving and developing.

Meaning

The first signaling system of people, despite the predominance of the second in adults, is of great importance in such types of human activities as sports, creativity, learning and work. Without her, the work of a musician and artist, actor and professional athlete would be impossible.

Despite the similarity of this system in humans and animals, in humans the first signaling system is a much more complex and advanced structure, since it is in constant harmonious interaction with the second.

The relationship of the body with the environment is carried out on the basis of signals entering the nervous system as a result of the direct influence of objects and phenomena of the external world on the receptors. I.P. Pavlov called this type of signaling the first signaling system. In the animal world, the first signaling system is the body's only channel of information about the state of the environment. Various objects of the external world, their physical and chemical properties (sound, color, shape, chemical composition, etc.) acquire the meaning of conditioned signals, notifying the body about the phenomena that follow them, thereby causing adaptive reactions. For example, a dormant herbivore flees at the sound of footsteps or the smell of a predator, as these stimuli signal danger.

The first signaling system of higher animals provides a fairly perfect reflection of the external world and, in connection with this, rapid and precise adaptation to the environment. I.P. Pavlov considered the first signaling system as a system of perception, impressions from all influences of the external and internal world, signaling biologically useful or harmful stimuli for the body. He wrote: “For an animal, reality is signaled almost exclusively only by irritations and their traces in the cerebral hemispheres, directly arriving by special cells of visual, auditory and other receptors of the body. This is what we have in ourselves as impressions, sensations and ideas from the surrounding external environment, both natural and our social, excluding the word, audible and visible. This is the first signaling system of reality that we have in common with animals.”

The signals of the first signaling system are specific and relate to a specific subject.

The formation of conditioned reflexes through the first signaling system constitutes in higher animals the physiological basis of their elementary concrete, or objective, thinking. The first signaling system is the same in humans and animals. In normal human life, it functions in isolation only in the first six months of life.

When a person is raised, he develops second alarm system, characteristic only of humans. This transfers the higher nervous activity of a person to a higher level. It acquires new qualities that contribute to the expansion of opportunities for communication with the outside world and the versatility of its manifestations. I. P. Pavlov called the second signaling system an “extraordinary addition” to the mechanisms of higher nervous activity in humans. The second signaling system is speech, the word, visible, audible, spoken mentally. This is the highest alarm system for the surrounding world. It consists of verbal designation of all its signals and verbal communication. The second signaling system developed in humans under the influence of the social environment during the labor process. A large role in this was played by kinesthetic irritations of the brain arising as a result of labor processes. The word for a person serves as the same physiological irritant as objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

Verbal signals generalize the stimuli of the first signaling system. The same word “table” signals not only a specific table, but also many other tables, different in size, shape, color, etc. This fact expresses not only a generalization, but also an abstraction from specific objects of reality, i.e. e. the transition of a person from objective thinking to abstract thinking. In order for the word “table” to indicate a specific table, a clarification is necessary - “this table”. Within the second signaling system, stimuli not only from the first, but also from the second signaling system itself are generalized. For example, the word with a narrow meaning “aspen” generalizes specific stimuli of the first signal system, and the word with a broader meaning “tree” generalizes the stimuli of the second signal system.

Thus, the second signaling system is comprehensive, capable of replacing, abstracting and generalizing all the stimuli of the first signaling system. Thanks to the entire previous life of an adult, the word is connected with all external and internal irritations coming into the nervous system, it signals all of them and replaces them all, causing the same actions as them.

Another extremely important significance of the second signaling system is that it dramatically increases the volume of information - through the use of not only individual, but also the collective experience of all humanity. The verbal information a person receives from other persons - oral and especially written - has an extremely wide range (this can be information not only from living persons, but also from many previous generations). Thus, an athlete’s improvement only partially occurs due to his personal experience; through verbal information, he widely uses the experience of his coach and a huge number of other people, set out in teaching aids, textbooks, articles, etc.

The first and second signaling systems are functionally interconnected. Signals from the first signaling system, coming from various parts of the body and the environment, continuously interact with signals from the second signaling system. In this case, conditioned reflexes of the second and higher orders are formed, functionally connecting the signaling systems into a single whole. In addition, the connection between two signal systems, based on the elective (selective) irradiation of excitation, allows conditioned reflexes developed on the basis of the first signal system to be reproduced through the second signal system (A. G. Ivanov-Smolensky).

The second signaling system constitutes the physiological basis of abstract verbal thinking, which is unique to humans. Afferent signals entering the central nervous system from the speech organs, through the auditory and visual analyzers, form complex reflexes in humans that determine sound and written speech.

The localization of the functions of the second signaling system in the cerebral cortex has not yet been fully elucidated. The structures of the right and left hemispheres participate in its implementation. The dominant role in most people (right-handed) belongs to the left hemisphere. Relatively large areas of it perform complex functions related to understanding the meaning of words, coordinating the speech-motor apparatus when pronouncing them, and other processes.

Signaling systems are systems of nervous processes, temporary connections and reactions that are formed in the brain as a result of exposure to external and internal stimuli and provide a subtle adaptation of the body to the environment.

First signaling system- this is the totality of our senses, giving the simplest idea of ​​the surrounding reality. This is a form of direct reflection of reality in the form of sensations and perceptions. It is common to both animals and humans.

In the process of social development, a person has, as a result of work activity, an extraordinary increase in the mechanisms of brain function. She became second signaling system, associated with verbal signaling, with speech. This highly sophisticated signaling system consists of the perception of words - spoken (aloud or silently), heard or visible (when reading). The development of the second signaling system has incredibly expanded and qualitatively changed the higher nervous activity of humans. The second signaling system is inextricably linked with human social life and is the result of the complex relationship in which the individual finds himself with the social environment around him. Verbal signaling, speech, language are means of communication between people; they developed among people in the process of collective work. Thus, the second signaling system is socially determined.

Outside society - without communication with other people - the second signaling system does not develop. Cases have been described in which children carried away by wild animals remained alive and grew up in an animal den. They did not understand speech and could not speak. It is also known that people who, at a young age, were isolated for decades from the society of other people, forgot their speech; their second alarm system stopped functioning.

The nature of P.'s interaction with. With. and V. s. With. may vary depending on the conditions of upbringing (social factor) and the characteristics of the nervous system (biological factor). Some people are distinguished by the relative weakness of P. s. With. - their immediate sensations are pale and weak (thinking type), others, on the contrary, perceive signals from P. s. With. bright and strong (artistic type). For the full development of personality, timely and correct development of both signaling systems is necessary. The second signaling system, according to Pavlov, “the highest regulator of human behavior”, prevails over the first and to some extent suppresses it. At the same time. The first signaling system to a certain extent controls the activity of the second.

Depending on the predominance of one of the signaling systems, Pavlov divided people into three types:

· The artistic type, to which he classified representatives with imaginative thinking (the first signaling system dominates among them).

· Thinking type, whose representatives have highly developed verbal thinking and a mathematical mindset (dominance of the second signaling system).

· The average type, in whose representatives both systems are mutually balanced.

Age characteristics:

The first signaling system begins to form in children immediately after birth, and the development of speech function, directly related to the development of the psyche, occurs later.

The word does not immediately become a “signal of signals”. The child first forms conditioned food reflexes to taste and smell stimuli, then to vestibular (swaying) and later to sound and visual.

Conditioned reflexes to verbal stimuli appear only in the second half of the first year of life. When communicating with a child, adults usually pronounce words, combining them with other immediate stimuli. As a result, the word becomes one of the components of the complex. For example, to the words “Where is mom?” the child turns his head towards the mother only in combination with other irritations: kinesthetic (from body position), visual (familiar surroundings, the face of the person asking the question), auditory (voice, intonation). It is necessary to change one of the components of the complex, and the reaction to the word disappears. Only gradually does the word begin to acquire a leading meaning, displacing other components of the complex. First, the kinesthetic component drops out, then visual and sound stimuli lose their significance. And the word itself causes a reaction.

Showing an object and naming it gradually leads to the formation of their association, then the word begins to replace the object it denotes. This occurs towards the end of the first year of life and the beginning of the second. However, the word first replaces only a specific object, for example, a given doll, and not a doll in general. At this stage of development, the word acts as a first-order integrator.

The transformation of a word into a second-order integrator, or “signal of signals,” occurs at the end of the second year of life. To do this, it is necessary that a bundle of connections be developed for it (at least 15 associations). The child must learn to operate with various objects denoted by one word. If the number of connections developed is smaller, then the word remains a symbol that only replaces a specific object.

Between the third and fourth years of life, concepts - third-order integrators - are formed. The child already understands words such as “toy”, “flowers”, “animals”. By the fifth year of life, concepts become more complex. Thus, the child uses the word “thing”, referring it to toys, dishes, furniture, etc.



1.1.First signal system 3

1.2. Second alarm system 4

1.3 Interaction of the first and second signal systems 7

References 10

1. Signaling activity of the brain

Pavlov called the conditioned reflex activity of the cerebral cortex the signal activity of the brain, since stimuli from the external environment give the body signals about what is important to it in the surrounding world. Pavlov called the signals entering the brain that are caused by objects and phenomena acting on the senses (resulting in sensations, perceptions, ideas) the first signaling system; it is found in humans and animals. But in humans, as Pavlov writes, an extraordinary increase in the mechanisms of nervous activity occurred in the process of work and social life. This increase is human speech, and according to Pavlov’s theory, it is the second signaling system - verbal.

According to Pavlov’s point of view, the regulation of the relationship of the organism with the environment is carried out in higher animals, including humans, through two interconnected instances of the brain: the nervous apparatus of unconditioned reflexes, caused by a few unconditioned (acting from birth) external stimuli, is concentrated in the subcortex; this apparatus, which constitutes the first instance, provides limited orientation in the environment and poor adaptation. The second instance is formed by the cerebral hemispheres, in which the nervous apparatus of conditioned reflexes is concentrated, providing signaling of a few unconditioned stimuli by a countless number of other stimuli, analyzed and synthesized; This device dramatically expands the body’s orientation capabilities and increases its adaptability.

2. First signaling system

In the first signaling system, all forms of behavior, including methods and means of mutual communication, are based solely on the direct perception of reality and reactions to natural stimuli. The first signaling system provides forms of concrete sensory reflection. In this case, the body first develops a sensation of individual properties, objects, and phenomena perceived by the corresponding receptor formations. At the next stage, the nervous mechanisms of sensations become more complex, and on their basis other, more complex forms of reflection - perception - arise. And only with the emergence and development of the second signaling system does it become possible to implement an abstract form of reflection - the formation of concepts and ideas.

Unlike the conditioned reflexes of animals, which reflect the surrounding reality with the help of specific auditory, visual and other sensory signals, stimuli of the second signaling system reflect the surrounding reality with the help of generalizing, abstract concepts expressed in words. While animals operate only with images formed on the basis of directly perceived signal stimuli, a person with his developed second signal system operates not only with images, but also with thoughts associated with them, meaningful images containing semantic (notional) information. Stimuli of the second signaling system are largely mediated by human mental activity.

The first signaling system is visual, auditory and other sensory signals from which images of the external world are built. The perception of direct signals from objects and phenomena of the surrounding world and signals from the internal environment of the body, coming from visual, auditory, tactile and other receptors, constitutes the first signaling system that animals and humans have.

The first signaling system, a system of conditioned reflex connections formed in the cerebral cortex of animals and humans when receptors are exposed to stimuli coming from the external and internal environment. It is the basis for the direct reflection of reality in the form of sensations and perceptions.

The term first signaling system was introduced in 1932 by I. P. Pavlov while studying the physiological mechanism of speech. According to Pavlov, for an animal, reality is signaled mainly by irritations (and their traces in the cerebral hemispheres), which are perceived directly by the cells of the visual, auditory and other receptors of the body. “This is what we also have in ourselves as impressions, sensations and ideas from the surrounding external environment, both natural and our social, excluding the word, audible and visible. This is the first signaling system of reality that we have in common with animals.”

The first signaling system provides forms of concrete sensory reflection. In this case, the body first develops a sensation of individual properties, objects, and phenomena perceived by the corresponding receptor formations. At the next stage, the nervous mechanisms of sensations become more complex, and on their basis other, more complex forms of reflection - perception - arise. And only with the emergence and development of the second signaling system does it become possible to implement an abstract form of reflection - the formation of concepts and ideas.